Questions and Answers About Draft Registration
Do You Feel a Draft? The real reason behind recent calls to bring back the draft.
The phrase "the draft" conjures up images from the Vietnam War: weekly body counts, young men making agonized decisions. More than 20 years later, no one is actually being drafted. But young people still have important decisions to make about military service.
I'm turning 18. What do I have to do? By the time you reach your 18th birthday, military recruiters have probably flooded your mailbox with glossy brochures, promising the world while avoiding the word "war." Even if you choose to ignore them, the Pentagon still wants to know about you.
If you're male and a U.S. citizen, you're legally required to register with the Selective Service System (SSS), within thirty days before or twenty-nine days after your 18th birthday. (If you're female you don't have to register: in fact, you can't. Not that the military doesn't want you -- recruiters have a special sales pitch just for women!) Most male U.S. residents who aren't citizens are also required to register.
The registration form is available at your local post office. You'll be asked for your name, gender, social security number, date of birth, temporary and permanent addresses, phone numbers, and signature. The form has no space for claiming any deferments or exemptions, such as conscientious objection. Such claims could only be made after an actual draft was re-started, and you've received a draft notice (see If There Were a Draft....).
If you know you won't and can't be part of the military, then you're probably a conscientious objector. You can begin preparing your claim now. Whether you're facing registration or not, CCCO encourages you to declare yourself a conscientious objector early and often -- and to act on that declaration.
Is a draft likely?
In a word, no.
By targeting low-income youth with a high-pressure sales pitch and inflated promises, the military has kept up its supply of ground troops. And the Pentagon now relies heavily on the Reserve and National Guard, mobilizing such units in every deployment.
The SSS, on the other hand, is set up for the sort of massive long-term war that hasn't happened since Vietnam. Even in such an event, the Pentagon doesn't expect to propose a new draft. The SSS isn't even designed for the "health workers draft" occasionally threatened by Congress (in the face of the military's continued shortage of medical professionals).
Instead, the Selective Service System is so inconsequential to Pentagon planners that in recent years, some of the most pro-military members of Congress have voted to shut it down, in an effort to cut government waste. However, other politicians have chosen to wrap themselves in the SSS flag by voting to continue its funding.
"After registration began in 1980, I realized I couldn't kill. By the time I turned 18, I realized I couldn't cooperate with a system that would send others to kill and die. When the prosecutions began, I chose to state publicly:We will not be intimidated."
- Sam Diener, public registration resister since 1982
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